


Incentive

by Passions



Series: Value Beyond Measure [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-06 23:24:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1876455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Passions/pseuds/Passions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With one party convinced, it's time for Jefferson to get Gold on-board with the scheme.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Incentive

"You did what?" Rhys growled.

Jefferson finished pouring the tea and sat down on his sofa, raising an eyebrow at his friend. “I gave someone a discount on you.” He frowned. “Oh, stop it. This isn’t about the money, it’s never been about the money for you.”

"Of course it has." Rhys growled. "Why else would I be doing it."

Jefferson snorted. “Nice try, old man, but you’re almost as rich as I am and I’m not stupid. I managed to create a law firm - you might have noticed I employed you in that capacity for a long time before I even thought up the idea for this. You gave into my escort idea because you’re lonely.”

Rhys’ jaw clenched. He liked Jefferson, even with all of his eccentricities, but sometimes Rhys wished those eccentricities ran just a bit deeper. He didn’t like how much the younger man could pick up on if he put his mind to it.

They were silent for a few minutes, each ignoring the continued presence of the other and focusing on his tea. Finally Rhys spoke up, his voice softer than it had been before.

"So. How much then?"

Jefferson was quiet for a few more minutes, staring down into his teacup, which meant Rhys wasn’t going to be happy about the answer.

"Two hundred."

Rhys was glad he’d decided not to take a sip of his tea until after Jefferson spoke because it surely would have come spraying back out again if he had.

"Two hundred? Are you mad? Well, yes, of course you are. But really Jefferson? What could possibly have possessed you to make you drop ninety percent of the fee?"

Jefferson just sipped his tea and shrugged, completely cool in the face of Rhys’ angered confusion. “It’s for a friend.”

"For a - Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no, no." Rhys scrambled up from the chair and started pacing - not an easy feat with a cane and a bad ankle, but he couldn’t sit still.

"What? You don’t even know who it is."

"Your only friends are here in town, Jefferson! No one from Storybrooke. We agreed on that. It’s in my bloody contract! No. No. I’m not doing it!" 

Rhys had spent a lot of time, far too much time, dealing with mockery and bullying when he was a child. He had removed himself from it as soon as he was old enough and spent the rest of his life making himself untouchable to those sorts of things. As much as people might have wanted to make fun of him later in life - a lame, far from handsome old man, raising a child alone because his wife had left him for someone better - as a lawyer and a landlord no one had dared say anything negative about him within his hearing.

But now … surely a stretch of time spent selling his time and his body would be enough to make the citizens of Storybrooke bold enough to criticize him and his son. More than anything he wanted to spare Bae any mockery. Allowing anyone in Storybrooke to be aware of his sometimes-occupation was not in Bae’s best interest. Therefore it was out of the question.

Rhys stopped pacing and looked calmly at Jefferson, admittedly frustrated that the man hadn’t so much as moved his teacup in the time he had been chasing his thoughts round and round his head. “No.” He said simply. “I won’t do it.”

Jefferson’s effortless shrug nearly had him off and ranting again. “That’s too bad. Belle will be so disappointed.”

That sharpened Rhys’ attention in a hurry. “Belle?” he asked, trying to remain aloof, “Belle French?” Well of course it was Belle French. She was the only Belle in the town, and probably for a significant radius around the town as well.

"Mmmm." Jefferson hummed and nodded. "It’ll be her birthday soon and she has been rather lonely for a while. I just thought it might have been a nice way to cheer her up a bit.”

Suddenly the idea didn’t seem such a bad one. Belle was a good person. Kind. She wouldn’t betray him to the town and expose him and Bae to their cruelty. She could be trusted with the secret. And if she was indeed lonely, and if he truly had any ability at all to ease that, he couldn’t refuse. Belle deserved to always always be happy.

He sat down in the chair he had so recently vacated and picked up his tea, not as warm now as he preferred it. He tried to sound nonchalant as he spoke, but couldn’t bear looking at Jefferson, all the same. He kept his gaze on the teacup, delicate white china with wrong-coloured sakura branches and blossoms - the branches black and the flowers red.

"Is she really so dear to you?" He asked quietly.

"She is." Jefferson said.

Rhys nodded, still without looking up at the younger man. “Two hundred then, for the night.”

His eyes still on the china, he missed the large grin stretching over his friend’s face.


End file.
